📍 San Mateo
Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger)
North America’s largest tree squirrel, it spends more time foraging on the ground than most tree squirrels and scatter-hoards nuts across dozens of small caches to get through winter.
Melanistic individuals are usually rare, but in parts of San Mateo they are so common that an all-black coat is practically the local norm rather than the exception.